It was fun while it lasted, but now it’s time for John Schneider and Co. to get to work.
The
Seattle Seahawks finished another high-achieving season in 2019 and the early
days of 2020, but the departure of the second– and
third-to-last holdovers from the 2013 championship team firmly placed Seattle
behind the eight-ball coming into the season. The retirements of Kam Chancellor
and Doug Baldwin created unique roster challenges for Seattle, and an
opportunity for general manager John Schneider to redirect the team’s identity.
The 2019 season taught Seahawks fans that Russell Wilson truly is a magician with a magical arm. Though he may not be as formidable in stature as Patrick Mahomes or Lamar Jackson, Wilson proved himself to be one of the last, if not the very last quarterback opposing defenses wanted to play against in a clutch moment.
In spite of Wilson’s herculean efforts, too many things broke wrong for Seattle this year. The team lost the second-most contributions from players bitten by the injury bug, trailing only the New York Jets, who started the season 1-7. Add in growing concerns with the coaching staff and inconsistent defense, and there are plenty of needs to be addressed.
- Extend Jadeveon Clowney
Let’s start with the easy ones. Clowney has never been the most reliable of defensive ends, but his presence on the line is palpable, especially in the bigger moments. The win against San Francisco in Santa Clara hinged on Clowney’s performance with six solo tackles, a sack and a forced fumble. His immediate and obvious buy-in to Seattle’s culture is another huge reason to bring him back for his age-27 season.
2. Bring in offensive line help from the free-agent market and the draft
The Seahawks also have three starting linemen hitting the open market this winter, not including backup center Joey Hunt starting eight games after Justin Britt’s season-ending knee injury. Getting Britt back next season will be a boost, but the others elicit low-to-lukewarm interest as retained starters. Seattle has the seventh-most salary cap space according to Spotrac, so the team has the option to go out and make a serious offer for impending free agents like tackle Bryan Bulaga or guard Brandon Scherff.
Tackles George Fant and Germain Ifedi are set to walk along with guard Mike Iupati, and Fant seems like the best retention candidate of the group. In addition to having the highest Pro Football Focus grade of the three and perhaps most importantly, he stayed healthy and available throughout the season.
3. Use the draft to focus on the lines of scrimmage, but not the skill positions attacking it.
Nobody would accuse Seattle of fielding monstrous groups on the offensive or defensive line this year. Rasheem Green and Clowney are pieces to build on and a resurgence from Jarran Reed could be as great a boon as any, but Seattle has to get something from the early-round defensive linemen
The draft will also be a good opportunity to add offensive line help. Going back to the 2016 draft, the Seahawks have drafted only one more offensive lineman in the first four rounds (four) than running backs (three). Among draft gurus, this year’s crop of potential rookies is strongest at interior offensive line, which allows for the releases of Ifedi and Iupati with care taken to find their replacements.
Additionally, my one concrete wish is that the Seahawks do not draft another running back. There are a dozen different approaches to the position outside of spending high-round picks on a position with the highest season-to-season turnover in the sport. Travis Homer is a welcome surprise. Rashaad Penny is on track to fill the role the team needs him in, and San Francisco demonstrated with Raheem Mostert that there are probably even a couple hidden gems on practice squads that require far smaller investments than draft picks.
4. Sweeping changes to the defensive coaching staff.
The plain fact is that something needs to change within the coaching staff. Pete Carroll is the winningest coach in team history and still has more player-friendly energy than the vast majority of current head coaches. So instead of calling for his ouster in a futile exercise, let’s take a prolonged look at Seattle’s defensive approach.
There is a bevy of sins, least of which the criminal refusal to play safety Marquise Blair over far less capable options. The defense fell to the bottom half of the NFL in terms of points and yards allowed for the first time since Carroll’s first year in 2010. Ken Norton Jr. is exactly the kind of player-first coach that fits Carroll’s archetype and even followed him from USC’s coaching staff to Seattle, but a change has to be made.
Plenty of draft picks flare out, but failing to even try out defensive end L.J. Collier and Blair in meaningful minutes is as bad as making linebacker Bobby Wagner play coverage against rangy slot receivers at a career-high rate in 2019. Carroll is getting old, but the defense can’t be this bad again if Seattle is to make another prolonged run in the playoffs that isn’t buoyed by relying on Wilson’s magic in the vast majority of games.
Jonah Baker can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @jonahpbaker